DESPICABLE ME 3

DESPICABLE ME 3. Kyle Balda, Pierre Coffin, directors; Eric Guillon, co-director. Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, script. USA: Illumination Entertainment, Universal Pictures presents (production) / Universal Pictures (US distribution), 2017. See IMDb for details of distribution.[1] See entry for DESPICABLE ME.

Animation suitable for children with many high-tech weapons lethal in appearance but unused for lethal effect; of mild interest: an electric guitar weapon used by the Balthazar Bratt, the villain, but capturable by others. Of greater interest are devices associated with the large and small. One large item is a relatively non-lethal "killer" robot in the shape of Balthazar Bratt and operated from the inside by Bratt, accompanied by "Clive the Robot," his small robot companion: cf. and contrast the fighting robots in such works as ROBOT JOX and Battletech and the motif of the human body as a committee-operated machine in INSIDE OUT and the works cited there. On the level of the small, note that the Minions are balanced by swarms of action figures of Bratt: note motif of the swarm (cf. and strongly contrast "The Upside-Down Evolution") and the Minions' inventions, especially a flying machine used to escape prison and stressing everyday objects, with an emphasis on toilets.

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Also: The film will appeal to older members of the audience in its gentle (arguably "loving") parody of aspects of 1980s pop culture and, relevant here, a number of quick shots of images alluding to earlier films (for less old members of potential audiences, DESPICABLE ME 3 could be used among SF and/or film fans for a drinking game rewarding spotted allusions). Relevant examples include

• The high-tech underground lair of the father of Gru and Dru: not a mechanized underworld but stocked to parodic fullness with futuristic weapons and electronic gear;
• Clive the Robot looking like a cross between Johnny 5 from SHORT CIRCUIT (1986) and (more so) any one of the "Drones" Huey, Dewey, and/or Louie from SILENT RUNNING (1972);
• The giant robot (comically) marauding in a city as an allusion to monsters from Godzilla films to the dough-boy in GHOSTBUSTERS (1984).[2] 

Discussed usefully in Wikipedia entry linked here.[3]

RDE. Initial Compiler, 31July17; 24Sep24